The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-06-02

American war there was generally caretul |
package containing a Bible, few photo
graphs and letters from home. On the other |
hand tens of thousands of homes waited for |
news. Parents saying: "Twenty thousand |
killed! I wonder if our boy was among
them" Painting dead away in post offices |
and telegraph stations. Both the ears of |
God filed with the sobs and agonies of kindred
waiting for news, or dropping under the an
of bad news. Speak, swamps of
the Chickahominy, and midnight lagoons,
and fire RATS of the Mississippi, and gunboats
before Vlckshurg, and woods of Antietam,
and tell to all the mountains and valleys and
rivers and lakes of north and south, jeremiads
of war times that have never been sylabledi
Beside that domestic perturbation and
homesicisness Of those days put the sweet do
mesticity of to-day. The only camp fire you
now ever sit at is the one kindled in stove
or furnace or hearth. Instead of half ration
of salt pork, a repast iuxuriant because par
taken of by loving family circle and in secret
condolences. Oh, now I see who those letters
were for the letters you, the young soldier,
took SO long in your tent to write, and that
you were so particular to put in the mail
without any one seeing you lest you be teased
by your comrades God spared you to get
back, and though the old people have gone
you have home of your own construction,
ard you often contrast those awful absences
and fiIial and brotherly and loverly heart
breaks with your present residence, which is
the dearest place you will find this side of
heaven. The place where your children were
born is the place where you want to die. To
write the figures of 1862 set up four crystals,
crystals of tears. To write the figures of 1887
l stand up four members of your household,
figures of rosy cheeks and faxen hair if I can
get them to stand still long enough.
Contrast also the religious opportunities of
twenty years ago with now. Often on the
march from Sunday morn till night, or COM
manded by officers who considered the name
of God and Christ of no use except to swear
by. Sometimes the drumhead, the pulpit and
you standing i'll heat or cold, all the surround
ings of military life having a tendency to
make you reckless No privacy for prayer
or Bible reading. No sound of church bells
Sabbaths spent far away from the place where
you were brought up. Now, the choicest
sanctuaries, easy pew, all Christian surround
ings, the air full of God and Christ, and
heaven and doxology. Three mountains
lifting themselves into the holy light-Mount
Sinai laundering its law. Mount Calvary
pleading the sacrifice, Mount Pisgah display
ing the promised land.
Contrast of national condition: 1862, sper. :
ing money by the millions in devastation Of
property and life; 1887, the finances so rec OH
structed that all the stock gamblers of Wall
street combined cannot make national
panic; 1862, surgeons of the land setting
broken bones and amputating gangrened
limbs and studying gunshot fractures and in
venting easy ambulauces for the wounded
and dying; 1887, surgeons giving their atten-
tions to those in casualty of agriculture, of
commerce or mechanical life the rushing OF
the ambulance through our streets, not sug-
gesting battle, but quick relief of some one
fallen in peaceful Industries; 1862, 35, ,OOO, ,OOO
inhabitants in this land; 1887, s., ,000, 600:
1862, wheat, about 100000 bushels; 1887,
the wheat will be about 500 100000 bushels
1862, Pacific coast five weeks from the Allan
tic; 1887, for three reasons, Union Pacific
Southern Pacific and Northern Pacific, only
seven days across. Look at the long line OF
churches, universities asylums and houses
with which, during the last few years, thi:
land has been decorated.
Living soldiers of the north and south, take
new and special ordination at this season Of
the year, to garland the sepulchers of your
fallen comrades. Nothing is too good fol
their memories. Turn all the private tomb.
| and the national cemeteries into gardens "
| dead of Malvern Hill and Cold Harbor anc
| Murfreesboro and Manassas Junction anC
| Cumberland Gap and field hospital, receive
these floral offerings of the living soldiers.
But they shall come again, all the dea(
troops We sometimes talk about earthly
| military reviews, such as took place in Pari
III the time of Marshal Ney, in London in tEt
| fine OF Wellington and in our own land, bu
what tame things compared with the final re
view, when all the armies of the ages shal
| pass for divine and angelic inspection. st
John says the armies of heaven ride on whit
horses and don't know but many of the olC
cavalry horses of earthly.a battle, tha
were wounded and worn out in ser
tice, may have resurrection. 1t woult
be only fair that, raised up and ennobled
they would be resurrected for the grant
review of the judgment day. 1t would no
take any more power to reconstruct thei
bodies than to reconstruct ours, and I shoulC
be very glad to see them among the whit
horses of apocalyptic vision Hark to tn
trumpet blast, the reveille of the last judg
ment! They come up All the armies of al
lands and all centuries on which ever sid
they fought, whether for freedom or despot
ism, for the right or the wrong, They come
They comei Darius and Cyrus, and Sennach
crib, and Joshua, and David, leading fort
the armies of scriptural times; Hannibal an
Hamilcar leading forth the armies of til
Carthaginians; Victor Emmanuel and GAR
baldi leading on the armies of the Italians
Tamerlane and Ghengis Khan followed by tn
armies of Asia; Gustavus Adolphus, an
Ftolemy Philopater, and Xerxes, and Alex
ander, and Semiramis and Washington, lead
ing battalion after battalion. The dea
American armies of 1776 and 1872, an
LOCO, 900 of northern and southern dea
in our civil war. They come up. The
pass on in review. The 100000 falle
in Napoleonic battles, the IL, 2,000, 900 Gel
mans fallen in the Thirty Years Wal
the Is, Geo, 600 fallen in the war under Sesos
iris; the 20, 900, 600 fallen in the wars of Jus
tinian. the 5000, 900 fallen in Jewish wars
the so, 900, 900 fallen in the crusades the $50
OO0, 600 fallen in the wars with Saracens an
Turks; the 35, ,0000 100000 men estimated t
have fallen in battle, enough, according t
one statistician, if they stood four abreast, t
reach clear around the earth 442 times
, But we shall have time to see them pass i
review before the throne of Judgment th
, cavalrymen, the artillerymen, the spearmer
the infantry, the sharpshooters, the gunne1
the sappers, the miners the archers, th
, skirmishers, men of all colors, of all epaulet:
, of all Standards of all weaponry, of all cour
tries Let the earth be especially balanced t
,, hear their tread. Forwardl Forward! LII
the orchestra of the heavenly galleries play til
grand march, joined by all the fifers, drum
mers and military bands that ever sounded viz
tory or defeat at Eylau or Borodina, at Mars
thon or Thermopyle, Bunker Hill or Yorl
; town, Solferino or Balaclava, Sedan or Getty
burg, from the time when Joshua halted astroI
omy above Gibeon and Ajalon till the last ma
, surrendered to Garnet WolSeley at Tel-e
!, Kebir. Nations, companies, battalions, age
centuries and the universal Forward in th
grand review of the judgment! Forward
Gracious and eternal Godl On that day ma
it be found that we are all marching in IL
right regiment and that we carried the rigl
,, standard, ard that we fought under the rigt
commander, all heaven, some on amethystir
5 >. Sg - ! IS s